World’s Largest Tumors: The Top Three

50 lb tumor in a female womb

A surgeon at Gandulfo hospital in Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires, with the 23 kg tumour / AFP AFP

Weighing a shocking 23kg, the tumour had been growing inside the woman’s womb for a year-and-a-half and took four hours to remove, The Daily Mailreported.

Oscar Lopez, surgical coordinator at Gandulfo hospital in Lomas de Zamora, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, said: “I’ve never seen anything like it in my 34 years of medical service.

“We removed a tumour whose weight is comparable to that of a four-year-old child.

“In layman’s terms, it was as if this woman had been pregnant with quintuplets.”

The woman had entered the operating theatre weighing 140kg and returned home 35kg lighter. She is said to be recovering well.

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Tumours of the type removed from the woman usually weigh no more than 3kg.

198 lb tumour in the leg

32 year old man from Vietnam named Nguyen Duy Hai (Da Lat native) survived a 12-hour operation in which a massive 198-pound tumour from his right leg was removed at France-Vietnam Hospital (FV) on January 5, 2012.

Dr. McKay McKinnon, an American doctor who also treated similar tumour cases has successfully removed his tumour.

According to him, this was a very risky operation and success rate of this operation was also 50%.

His operation was planned to take place on 27 November, led by Dr. McKay and some other Vietnamese surgeons but it was delayed due to his worsening health. He also added that this tumour should be operated because his condition will worsen fast as the tumour keeps growing and also damage other body functions.

300 lb tumor in female abdomen

A 300 pound tumor from an unnamed 34-year-old woman’s abdomen was removed via a 6 hour surgery in Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California on October 1991. It was the world’s biggest tumor removed from a human body.

During operation, the woman had to lay on her back because if she lay flat the tumor would crush her abdomen. Doctor had to remove it in one piece because of it being complex. Six hours later, the tumor was successfully remove and later found out that it was benign.

The tumor was a multicystic mass on the right ovary of the woman. The operation was performed by Professor Katherine O’Hanlan of StanfordUniversity Medical Center in California, USA. The tumor had a diameter of 1 meter (3 ft). The patient – who weighed 95 kg (210 lb) after the operation and has made a full recovery – left the operating room on one stretcher and the tumor on another.

Burhan Ahmed is currently Editor-in-Chief at Medicalopedia.org. He completed his residency from Michigan State University in 2015. He has written three short revision books on Biology, Stomatology and Gynecology, has 4 publications to his name. He is pursuing career in cosmetic dermatology.